Page 93 of What a Wolf Wants
Ethan texted Ty:We’ve got DEA Agent Ryerson in custody. We’ll take him to the same place where your other officers picked up Officer Davis and you can transport him out of here.
Ty texted:Good show. Sending a car to pick him up.
Then Ethan texted Adam:We got Agent Ryerson. As soon as he’s hauled out of here to face charges, we’ll be joining you. Josh and Noah are here with us too.
Adam texted:Good. We found Oakley’s scent again. He’s headed to the coastline.
Ethan thought it was way too much of a coincidence that Kroner, Oakley, Officer Davis, and Agent Ryerson had headed to the coastline. To steal a car from one of the oceanside homes? Or was one of the homes another of their safe houses?
Ethan texted:Kroner, Officer Davis, and Agent Ryerson were headed that way also. What are the odds that they have a place along here where they planned to hole up?
Adam texted:Good thinking.
Ethan texted Ty:Oakley was also headed to the coast. Can you learn who owns the houses cliffside near where we found Davis?
Ty texted:I’ll check into it.
To hopefully speed things up, Ethan asked Agent Ryerson, “Which house were you going to along the coast?”
“I don’t know what you mean.”
Really? Ryerson was going to play dumb now?
Ethan folded his arms. “Listen, you know you’re in a lot of hot water. If you cooperate, the DA might give you a break.”
“He’ll kill me.”
“Kroner?”
“Yeah.”
“You think he’s going to let you live anyway? If he hascontacts on the outside, you know you’re a dead man. He could very well believe you had everything to do with us learning he would be at the warehouse.” Ethan raised his brows, waiting for that bit of news to sink in. “Who tried to kill Officer Baker?”
“Kroner.”
Ethan was glad they had confirmation from both Davis and Ryerson as to who had shot Baker. “So see? If he believes you’re going to spill the beans on him, disagree with him in any way, the next thing you know, you’re dead.”
“Is Baker going to pull through?” Ryerson asked.
“The odds are in his favor. That means he’ll talk and put Kroner away for life, and you’ll be stuck with the rest of the gang in prison for nice long-term sentences. So where’s the hideout you were headed for?” Ethan asked.
Agent Ryerson let out his breath. He didn’t have anything further to lose so he finally said, “I’ll show you the way.”
“Who all knew about this?” Ethan asked as they walked with him to where the house would be. He was hoping Oakley and Kroner would be on their way there and they could give them a nice welcoming party.
“Kroner and Oakley. Me, Baker, Davis, and Agent Pete Cohen. But none of the other men working for Kroner knew about it. Kroner figured if too many people knew the location, someone might talk. He trusted us because he needed us on the law enforcement side of the house to keep him out of trouble.”
“So much for that working out,” Ethan said wryly. “Why did Kroner shoot Baker?”
“Baker said Kroner had put them all in danger when he’d called the meeting at the warehouse and had them all arrive at the same time. I think we all agreed with Baker, but we kept our mouths shut because we knew how volatile Kroner could be. Baker had been paranoid about getting caught for his participation in all these drug deals for some months now. He told me on more than one occasion he thought the detectives who conduct internal criminal investigations were looking into him.”
“Did he tell Kroner that?” Ethan asked.
Agent Ryerson shook his head. “He told me, Agent Cohen, and Officer Davis that he was sure Kroner would kill any of us if he thought we could be up on charges and then be flipped to testify against him. And Baker couldn’t quit. You can’t just say to the boss you’re not going to do this anymore and live to tell of it. But he was getting more vocal, maybe hoping the rest of us would agree with him and convince Kroner it wasn’t a good idea. Kroner was getting a big payment for a shipment of heroin and Kroner wanted everyone there to make sure he had the muscle to ensure the guys delivering it didn’t stiff him.
“So Baker was the one saying he didn’t want to be there, that he felt something would go wrong. Kroner assumed he had talked to the DEA about it. In the tunnel, Kroner accused Baker of setting him up and shot Baker, then left him for dead. All of us were shocked and we thought any one of us could be next on the chopping block. But then Kroner said men would drive two stolen vehicles out of the auto body repair shop garage to lead the police on a chase. If itworked, they could get out of there and not get caught. Still, whoever took the job knew they were serving as the decoys, and nobody wanted the job.
“Kroner said either he got a couple of volunteers, or all of us would end up like Baker. Finally, two of the men said when they were younger, they used to race cars down the city streets in the middle of the night. They thought they could get away with it, so they finally volunteered. It didn’t matter to Kroner who did it. He just wanted to make surehecould get out another way and not get caught.”
